The number of Ohioans sickened in a mumps outbreak that began at Ohio State University climbed
to 153 yesterday and includes a 9-month-old.

Meanwhile, OSU leaders and experts from public health and the Wexner Medical Center are
preparing to examine the health crisis.

Interim university President Joseph A. Alutto appointed a mumps advisory executive team last
week to review university policies, OSU spokeswoman Liz Cook said.

The group will “take a very careful and closer look at the outbreak and really try to determine
next steps to really protect the university campus and the greater community,” she said.

Cook said she did not know whether the team was to specifically consider requiring students to
be vaccinated before attending Ohio State. Some other schools mandate vaccination against mumps,
but Ohio State does not.

The advisory team has yet to meet, and Cook said she did not know when members would conclude
their discussions or issue a report or recommendations.

One of two people who became temporarily deaf as a result of the mumps has recovered, said
Columbus Public Health spokesman Jose Rodriguez. There are now six cases of orchitis (swollen
testicles) associated with the outbreak, he said. The condition can lead to sterility, though that
is rare.

Rodriguez said news that a baby was sickened was particularly troubling.

Babies under a year old are too young to have received a vaccine and are especially vulnerable,
as are older children and adults who have not had both rounds of the vaccine against measles, mumps
and rubella.